Riverside School District sees first enrollment growth in 20 years

Something new and exciting happened in the Riverside School District this school year: Enrollment grew for the first time in 20 years.

Enrollment had been declining about 3% a year every year for the last two decades, said superintendent Ken Russell. This school year, enrollment is up 120 students over last year, bringing the total number of students to 1,400.

“It’s a huge thing for us,” he said. “That’s about a class for us. Every class is about 100, 110 students.”

While growth is an encouraging sign, it also benefits the district because the state pays the district an average of $8,000 per student. Decades of declining enrollment meant decades of declining budgets, which meant that often maintenance and other things were put off, Russell said.

The added income from the new students has provided a welcome boost to the district’s budget.

“This allows us to use some of that money to catch up,” he said. “We have aging facilities.”

One of the things the school board decided to do was to spend $30,000 on a new Kabota tractor. One of the main things the old tractor was used for was plowing snow.

“Every time we went and plowed, we had to weld pieces together,” he said. “It was old and we just couldn’t put a Band-Aid on it anymore.”

The district also spent $35,000 on a commercial dishwasher, $1,000 on a new mixer for the kitchen, $10,000 on a new soft water system for their boiler and $8,000 on a new HVAC control system. The old HVAC control system kept failing, which meant that the whole system would stop working. Numerous attempts were made to patch it together, but it was time to replace it, Russell said. “Every time you put a Band-Aid on it, it costs money,” he said.

The district typically sets aside $100,000 a year for new curriculum and the school board is discussing whether to add to that. There are also discussions about setting some money aside for a rainy day.

“We also need to maintain a fund balance,” Russell said. “Just like anybody, we need to have a savings account.”

Russell said he doesn’t think there’s any one reason for the surge in enrollment, since no new housing developments have gone up in the district. But Russell said he is seeing evidence that students are coming for the unique atmosphere the district has created in recent years.

“I think we’re building a positive culture,” he said. “We’re getting students and families who previously choiced out of Riverside coming back to Riverside.”

He’s also noticed students from other districts selecting Riverside, along with families who move into the district because they’re looking for homes with property.

“There’s not one theory,” he said. “Obviously I’m biased because I’m the superintendent, but I think we’re getting some positive energy. To me, it’s all about culture.”

The Riverside School District has an elementary school, middle school and high school on the same campus on Highway 2 north of Chattaroy. There is no town, just a collection of a few businesses on the highway near the schools. That makes the school district the center of the community, which generally means school events are well attended.

“It still feels like the value of team and community is higher here,” he said.

Additional revenue also means more funding for programs. “It helps a lot in a small district,” he said. “We’re in such a good place because of the extra enrollment.”

The new students are spread fairly evenly through grades K-12, Russell said. He hopes the trend of rising enrollment continues, but he doesn’t want the school district to get so large that the small-town feel vanishes.

“That’s always the balance,” he said.

There’s no way to know at this point if the growth will continue or not, so the district is being cautious, he said.

“Because we had a huge spike in enrollment, we don’t know if it’s a trend,” he said. “We need to be strategic and smart and see what happens next year.”